


In Which Mai and Toph Are Not Remotely Ladylike

by LizBee



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alcohol, Canon Disabled Character, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-20
Updated: 2011-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:05:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizBee/pseuds/LizBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mai and Toph drink too much, talk too much, engage in petty vandalism.  Their mothers would be horrified.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Mai and Toph Are Not Remotely Ladylike

"Are you going to drink that?"

"Here." Mai slid the bottle across the table. "We'd better hope no one tries to kill Zuko in the next few hours, because if I tried to throw a knife, I'd probably cut own hand off."

 _Technically_ , she was his girlfriend, not his bodyguard. _Technically_ all the guards could be trusted.

Oh well, Mai thought. Zuko always enjoyed an opportunity to remind people that he, too, could stab people with sharp things. It was something they had in common. It was practically romantic. Really.

"Maybe I've had too much to drink," Mai said.

"You're such a lightweight."

Mai squinted at Toph. "Says the fifteen-year-old."

"Same age Zuko was when his crew got him drunk on cheap sake and took him to the pleasure district."

"Funny," said Mai, "he's never told me that story."

"And he probably never will. I heard it from Iroh."

"Figures," said Mai. Against her better judgment, she reached for the bottle of soju. It was traditionally drunk in shots, but since Toph had problems with pouring at the best of times, they had somehow graduated -- if that was the word -- to drinking from the bottle. "When I was fifteen, I was learning calligraphy and proper ceremonial etiquette."

"My parents never expected me to learn anything," Toph murmured. She lay on her back on the couch, her feet resting on the wall. There were toe marks on the mural depicting Fire Lord Zinha's victory against the Northern Water Tribe. No money in the royal royal treasury for a new paint job this year.

"Then my brother was born. I don't think my mother remembered to speak to me for six months." Mai smiled. "I enjoyed the break."

"My parents kept trying to have more kids," said Toph. "To replace me. Not that they ever put it like that, but what was I supposed to think? They kept me secret from the whole world."

"And now you're famous," said Mai. Or infamous, in the places with strict rules about underage gambling and illegal earthbending matches.

"Yeah." Toph chuckled. "They must be so pissed."

"You haven't seen them?"

"Not since I left." Toph flexed her foot, and the wall rearranged itself, stones forming an embossed map of the Earth Kingdom. "Are you about to tell me about the importance of family?"

"Yeah, right. I wish there was an ocean between me and my mother."

"Zuko's mom's okay."

"Zuko's mom killed the Fire Lord. Mine," Mai swallowed more soju, "mine probably would have offered to kill me herself, if it'd make him happy."

It was the drink that burned her throat, not tears or anger, or any feeling at all.

"You should stay with us," said Mai, sitting up. Or trying to. When she was upright, and her hair was out of her face, she said, "I mean, you're the honoured friend of the Fire Lord. My parents would eat a live wolf-bat to please Zuko. You could get away with _anything_."

Toph's chuckle was low and dark as she drank the last of the soju.

end


End file.
